Here Is What a Quasar Looks Like

The strange cosmic objects called quasars are some of the perkiest
objects in the cosmos. Quasars are essentially galaxies with massive black holes
at their cores, sucking in matter and releasing gouts of x-rays that generate a
massive, broiling-hot cloud. Like several astronomical pictures that you see,
this isn't a precise image of what you'd see with your own eyes if you were moving
around this quasar, known as RX J1131. The image you're seeing is relatively
created by gravitational lensing from a neighboring galaxy, generating four
images of the quasar (in pink). Even with the distortions, you can comprehend
how bright it is.

“Multiple
images of a distant quasar are visible in this combined view from NASA's
Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Hubble Space Telescope. The Chandra data,
along with data from ESA's XMM-Newton, were used to directly measure the spin
of the supermassive black hole powering this quasar. This is the most distant
black hole where such a measurement has been made, as reported in our pressrelease. Gravitational lensing by an intervening elliptical galaxy has created
four different images of the quasar, shown by the Chandra data in pink. Such
lensing, first predicted by Einstein, offers a rare opportunity to study
regions close to the black hole in distant quasars, by acting as a natural
telescope and magnifying the light from these sources. The Hubble data in red,
green and blue shows the elliptical galaxy in the middle of the image, along
with other galaxies in the field.

The
quasar is known as RX J1131-1231 (RX J1131 for short), located about 6 billion
light years from Earth. Using the gravitational lens, a high quality X-ray
spectrum - that is, the amount of X-rays seen at different energies - of RX
J1131 was obtained.

The
X-rays are produced when a swirling accretion disk of gas and dust that
surrounds the black hole creates a multimillion-degree cloud, or corona near
the black hole. X-rays from this corona reflect off the inner edge of the
accretion disk. The reflected X-ray spectrum is altered by the strong
gravitational forces near the black hole. The larger the change in the
spectrum, the closer the inner edge of the disk must be to the black hole.

The
authors of the new study found that the X-rays are coming from a region in the
disk located only about three times the radius of the event horizon, the point
of no return for infalling matter. This implies that the black hole must be
spinning extremely rapidly to allow a disk to survive at such a small radius.”

This
post was written by Umer Abrar. To contact the author of this post, write to mirzavadoodulbaig@gmail.com
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Here Is What a Quasar Looks Like
Reviewed by Umer Abrar
on
1/11/2015
Rating: 5